• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.157-162
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• 2018

In the study, herbaceous biomass waste including giant miscanthus, corn stalk, and wheat stalk were used to prepare commercially valuable activated carbons by KOH activation. The waste biomass predominantly consists of cellulose/hemicellulose and lignin, in which decomposition after carbonization and activation contributed to commercially valuable specific surface areas (>$2000m^2/g$) and specific capacitances (>120 F/g) that exceeded those of commercial activated carbon. The significant electrochemical performance of the herbaceous biomass-derived activated carbons indicated the feasibility of utilizing waste biomass to fabricate energy storage materials. Furthermore, with respect to both economic and environmental perspectives, it is advantageous to obtain activated carbon from herbaceous biomass waste given the ease of handling biomass and the low production cost of activated carbon.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.163-168
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• 2018

Biomass waste-derived carbon is an attractive alternative with environmental benignity to obtain carbon material. In this study, we prepare carbon from coffee grounds as a biomass precursor using a simple, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly method through physical activation using only steam. The coffee-derived carbon, having a micropore-rich structure and a low extent of graphitization of disordered carbon, is developed and directly applied to lithium-ion battery anode material. Compared with the introduction of the Ketjenblack (KB) conducting agent (i.e., coffee-derived carbon with KB), the coffee-derived carbon itself achieves a reversible capacity of ~200 mAh/g (0.54 lithium per 6 carbons) at a current density of 100 mA/g after 100 cycles, along with excellent cycle stability. The origin of highly reversible lithium storage is attributed to the consistent diffusion-controlled intercalation/de-intercalation reaction in cycle life, which suggests that the bulk diffusion of lithium is favorable in the coffee-derived carbon itself, in the absence of a conducting agent. This study presents the preparation of carbon material through physical activation without the use of chemical activation agents and demonstrates an application of coffee-derived carbon in energy storage devices.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.79-95
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• 2017

A number of field studies have provided evidence that biomass burning is one of the major global sources of atmospheric particles. In this study, we have collected $PM_{2.5}$ emitted from biomass burning combusted at open burning and laboratory chamber situations. The open burning experiment was conducted with the cooperation of 9 farmers in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, while the chamber experiment was designed to evaluate the characteristics of chemical components among 14 different plant species. The analyzed categories were $PM_{2.5}$ mass concentration, organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), ionic components ($Na^+$, ${NH_4}^+$, $Ca^{2+}$, $Mg^{2+}$, $K^+$, $Cl^-$, ${NO_3}^-$ and ${SO_4}^{2-}$), water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC), water-insoluble inorganic carbon (WIOC), char-EC and soot-EC. OC was the dominant chemical component, accounting for the major fraction of primary $PM_{2.5}$ derived from biomass burning, followed by EC. Ionic components contributed a small portion of $PM_{2.5}$, as well as that of $K^+$. In some cases, $K^+$ is used as biomass burning tracer; however, the observations obtained in this study suggest that $K^+$ may not always be suitable as a tracer for biomass burning emissions. Also, the results of all the samples tested indicate relatively low values of char-EC compared to soot-EC. From our results, careful consideration should be given to the usage of $K^+$ and char-EC as indicators of biomass burning. The calculated ratios of WSOC/OC and WIOC/OC were 55.7% and 44.3% on average for all samples, which showed no large difference between them. The organic materials to OC ratio, which is often used for chemical mass closure model, was roughly estimated by two independent methods, resulting in a factor of 1.7 for biomass burning emissions.

• Clean Technology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.174-181
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• 2022

Biomass is a sustainable alternative resource for production of liquid fuels and organic compounds that are currently produced from fossil fuels including petroleum, natural gas, and coal. Because the use of fossil fuels can increase the production of greenhouse gases, the use of carbon-neutral biomass can contribute to the reduction of global warming. Although biological and chemical processes have been proposed to produce petroleum-replacing chemicals and fuels from biomass feedstocks, it is difficult to replace completely fossil fuels because of the high oxygen content of biomass. Production of petroleum-like fuels and chemicals from biomass requires the removal of oxygen atoms or conversion of the oxygen functionalities present in biomass derivatives, which can be achieved by catalytic hydrodeoxygenation. Hydrodeoxygenation has been used to convert raw biomass-derived materials, such as biomass pyrolysis oils and lignocellulose-derived chemicals and lipids, into deoxygenated fuels and chemicals. Multifunctional catalysts composed of noble metals and transition metals supported on high surface area metal oxides and carbons, usually selected as supports of heterogeneous catalysts, have been used as efficient hydrodeoxygenation catalysts. In this review, the catalysts proposed in the literature are surveyed and hydrodeoxygenation reaction systems using these catalysts are discussed. Based on the hydrodeoxygenation methods reported in the literature, an insight for feasible hydrodeoxygenation process development is also presented.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2015.12a
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• pp.285-285
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• 2015

Utilization of biomass as a substitute fuel for conventional energy systems have been grown larger everyday in the world. In particular, co-firing of biomass in a large coal power plant are common in Korea after the introduction of RPS since 2012, and the application of biomass-derived fuel is now spreading to district heating and power, industrial energy supply, and transportation sectors. For biomass to energy, appropriate conversion process is needed to satisfy the fuel requirements of a specific energy system. In this study, various kinds of thermochemical conversion technologies will be presented for renewable fuel productions from biomass.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.96 no.5
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• pp.591-601
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• 2007

Spatial information on forest biomass is an important factor to evaluate the capability of forest as a carbon sequestrator and is a core independent variable required to drive models which describe ecological processes such as carbon budget, hydrological budget, and energy flow. The objective of this study is to understand the relationship between satellite image and field data, and to quantitatively estimate and map the spatial distribution of forest biomass. Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) derived vegetation indices and field survey data were applied to estimate the biomass distribution of mountainous forest located in Gwangneung Experimental Forest (230 ha). Field survey data collected from the ground plots were used as the dependent variable, forest biomass, while satellite image reflectance data (Band 1~5 and Band 7), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), and RVI (Ratio Vegetation Index) were used as the independent variables. The mean and total biomass of Gwangneung catchment area were estimated to be about 229.5 ton/ha and $52.8{\times}10^3$ tons respectively. Regression analysis revealed significant relationships between the measured biomass and Landsat derived variables in both of deciduous forest ($R^2=0.76$, P < 0.05) and coniferous forest ($R^2=0.75$, P < 0.05). However, there still exist many uncertainties in the estimation of forest ecosystem parameters based on vegetation remote sensing. Developing remote sensing techniques with adequate filed survey data over a long period are expected to increase the estimation accuracy of spatial information of the forest ecosystem.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.165-175
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• 2017

In Japan, the primary carbonaceous particles emitted from motor vehicles and waste incinerators have been reduced due to strict regulations against exhaust gas. However, the relative contribution of carbonaceous particles derived from plants and biomass has been increasing. Accordingly, compositional analysis of carbonaceous particles has become increasingly important to determine the sources and types of particles produced. To reveal the sources of the organic particles contained in particulate matter with diameters of ${\leq}2.5{\mu}m$ ($PM_{2.5}$) and the processes involved in their generation, we analyzed molecular marker compounds (2-methyltetrols, cis-pinonic acid, and levoglucosan) derived from the plants and biomass in the $PM_{2.5}$ collected during daytime- and nighttime-sampling periods in summer (July and August) and autumn (November) in Kazo, which is in the northern area of Saitama prefecture, Japan. We also measured $^{14}C$ carbonaceous concentrations in the same $PM_{2.5}$ samples. The concentrations of 2-methyltetrols were higher in the summer than in the autumn. Because the deciduous period overlaps with this decrease in the levels of 2-methyltetrols, we considered the emission source to broad-leaved trees. In contrast, the emission source of the cis-pinonic acid precursor was considered to be conifers, because its concentration remained almost constant throughout the year. The concentration of levoglucosan was considerably increased in the autumn due to frequent biomass open burning. The ratio of plant-derived carbon to total carbon, obtained by measuring of $^{14}C$, in summer $PM_{2.5}$ sample was higher in the nighttime, and could be influenced by anthropogenic sources during the daytime.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.183-194
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• 2011

This study reviewed on the research trend of sources and utilization of the byproducts(Lignin) from bioethanol production process with lignocellulosic biomass such as wood, agri-processing by-products(corn fiber, sugarcane bagasse etc.) and energy crops(switch grass, poplar, Miscanthus etc.). During biochemical conversion process, only Cellulose and hemicellulosic fractions are converted into fermentable sugar, but lignin which represents the third largest fraction of lignocellulosic biomass is not convertible into fermentable sugars. It is therefore extremely important to recover and convert biomass-derived Lignin into high-value products to maintain economic competitiveness of cellulosic ethanol processes. It was introduced that lignin types and characteristics were different from various isolation methods and biomass sources. Also utilization and potentiality for market of those were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.159-165
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• 2016

BACKGROUND: Carbonized biomass is increasingly used as a tool of soil carbon sequestration. The objective of this study was to evaluate soil carbon storage to application of carbonized biomass derived from pear tree pruning.METHODS AND RESULTS: The carbonized biomass was a mobile pyrolyzer with field scale, which a reactor was operated about 400~500℃ for 5 hours. The treatments were consisted of a control without input of carbonized biomass and two levels of carbonized biomass inputs as 6.06 Mg/ha, C-1 and 12.12 Mg/ha, C-2. It was shown that the soil carbon pools were 49.3 Mg/ha for C-1, 57.8 Mg/ha for C-2 and 40.1 Mg/ha for the control after experimental periods. The contents of accumulated soil carbon pool were significantly (P < 0.001) increased with enhancing the carbonized biomass input amount. The slopes (1.496) of the regression equations are suggested that carbon storage from the soil was increased about 0.1496 Mg/ha with every 100 kg/ha of carbonized biomass input amount.CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that application of carbonized biomass would be increased the soil carbon contents due to a highly stable C-matrix of carbonized biomass. More long-term studies are needed to be proved how long does carbon stay in orchard soils.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.27-34
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• 2023

In this study, various plant-based biomass are recycled into carbon materials to employ as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Firstly, various biomass of rice husk, chestnut, tea bag, and coffee ground are collected, washed, and ground. The carbonization process is followed under a nitrogen atmosphere at 850℃. The morphological and chemical properties of materials are investigated using FE-SEM, EDS, and FT-IR to compare the characteristic differences between various biomass. It is noticeable that biomass-derived carbon materials vary in shape and degree of carbonization depending on their precursor materials. These materials are applied as anode materials to measure the electrochemical performance. The specific capacities of rice husk-, chetnut-, tea bag-, and coffee ground-derived carbon materials are evaluated as 65.8, 80.2, 90.6, and 104.7 mAh g^-1 at 0.2C. Notably, coffee ground-based carbon exhibited the highest specific capacity owing to the difference in elemental composition and the degree of carbonization. Conclusively, this study suggests the possibility of utilizing as energy storage devices by employing various plant-based biomass into active materials for anodes.